Colin Powell

• Colin Powell: All Rush's fault? Colin Powell says conservatives have to stop shouting at the world and the country. — Gawker
• Blagojevich: Would Obama be more likely to pardon Blagojevich if he didn't look like a male hustler from 1974? Seven Blago questions for Obama. — 23/6
• Space: Resistant to Obamafication? NASA making transition hard because it wants to save a costly project in jeopardy. — Good
• GOP: Are you a Republican needing inspiration? Watch this montage dedicated to the Gipper. — Townhall

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In 2001 John McCain voted against the Bush tax cuts, part of which Barack Obama now wants to let expire (while keeping some in place). In 2000, McCain shared a take on the progressive tax system, which deviates from the one he has now. He confronted a question from the daughter of "Joe the Doctor" who asked McCain at a 2000 townhall: "Why is it that someone like my father, who goes to school for 13 years, gets penalized in a huge tax bracket because he's a doctor?" McCain responded:

[You're] questioning the fundamentals of a progressive tax system where people who make more money pay more in taxes than a flat, across-the-board percentage. . . . But I believe that when you really look at the tax code today, the very wealthy, because they can afford tax lawyers and all kinds of loopholes, really don't pay nearly as much as you think they do when you just look at the percentages. And I think middle-income Americans, working Americans, when the account and payroll taxes, sales taxes, mortgage pay — all of the taxes that working Americans pay, I think they — you would think that they also deserve significant relief, in my view.

Well now McCain is taking Obama to task for "socialist" plans such as restoring taxes on those making $250,000 to Clinton-era levels. Some say the latest tactic isn't about tax policy as much as it is about exploiting a cultural divide. To see why, read more

After Colin Powell's thorough endorsement of Barack Obama yesterday on Meet the Press the reactions and analysis flew in the media and your comments. Here are some of the standout reactions:

• Michelle Malkin called "Powell’s embrace of Barack Obama is a triumph of hope over reality," but is careful to say she doesn't think it's an issue of race. "It’s Obama’s social liberalism, not his skin color, that attracts Powell most."
• Rush Limbaugh and Pat Buchanan didn't come to the same conclusion, saying, "I am now researching his past endorsements to see if I can find all the inexperienced, very liberal, white candidates he has endorsed," and "look would Colin Powell be endorsing Obama if he were a white liberal Democrat..." respectively.
• Over on Townhall, they link the endorsement to the importance Powell puts on the opinion of the media elite saying, "But what his endorsement highlights again is that this race isn't just about left vs. right, liberal vs. conservative. It's about elites vs. normal, everyday Americans."

To see what McCain had to say and what happens next, read more

On Meet the Press moments ago, former Secretary of State Colin Powell laid out first his reasons, and then his much-anticipated endorsement. Powell said that Obama had been showing intellectual vigor and displaying concern for all of the country and the issues people care about, while he was concerned by McCain's seeming constant changing of ideas on how to solve problems. He said though Gov. Palin was to be respected she was not ready to be the president, which is "the job of vice president."

Continuing, he expressed dismay over the Ayers tactic and the robocalls happening about him, saying, "this goes too far. It makes the McCain campaign look too narrow." Adding the party has moved too far to the right, something else that he was troubled with. After telling a stunning story about a picture of a mother at her son's headstone in Arlington cemetery who was a 20-year-old soldier of the Muslim faith, and he expressed extreme disappointment that the faith seems to being used in the campaign as a synonym for terrorism or anti-Americanism.

Then he said it. To see who he endorsed, read more

Glee. This pictures of Colin Powell getting down with his soberly respectable self fill me with utter glee. The former secretary of state hip-hopped on stage with the Nigerian group Olu Maintain at the Africa Rising Festival at the Royal Albert Hall last night. After proving a suit and tie is no match for the funkiness of his moves, he turned more serious. He said that his own black identity matters now more than ever, and told the audience that with work and foreign investment, Africa could start to succeed like Asia and Eastern Europe.

Powell said:

I stand before you tonight as an African-American. Many people have said to me you became secretary of state of the USA, is it still necessary to say that you are an African-American or that you are black, and I say, yes, so that we can remind our children. It took a lot of people struggling to bring me to this point in history. I didn't just drop out of the sky, people came from my continent in chains. . . .Asia is expanding, it created jobs for people, and Eastern Europeans are doing the same . . . it's now Africa's turn.

Christina and Seal were at the festival too, but Powell? Clearly the showstopper. Could he be ready for an encore? There are rumblings that he could be ready to endorse a candidate, and perhaps not the one from the party he served. Possible?

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Christina Aguilera arrived in London with her boys Jordan and Max over the weekend and tonight was the big event. She, along with others like Seal, took the stage to perform at the Africa Rising Festival. Tyson Beckford graced us with his shirtless presence while even Colin Powell got into the dancing spirit. Christina took the red carpet in a colorful outfit, but when it came time to sing she was back in the all-white we recognize from her tour last Summer. Before her show, Christina talked a little about Max, saying they'll have more kids and that her upcoming album is inspired by him: "It's all about color and life. Everything's a playground for him. Everything is color and fun." It looks like she was already wrapped up in that colorful and fun spirit last night alongside all the other performers for the night.

To see lots more photos from the show and red carpet including Christina Aguilera, Seal, Alek Wek, Chris Aire, Tyson Beckford, Colin Powell, and others, just read more

Joseph Wilson, who personifies the dissent surrounding the build up to the Iraq war, profoundly resents Barack Obama's distortion of George Bush's folly into Hillary Clinton's responsibility.

On the Huffington Post, the husband of ex-CIA agent Valerie Plame and former ambassador, systematically deflates Obama's argument that he possesses superior judgment, evidenced by Obama's 2002 speech against the war. For some of the arguments made by Wilson, read more